Farewell and thank you
This is my final update before handing over to your next ALGA President later this month.
As you may know, I am leaving local government after 12 rewarding and enjoyable years, including four years as national President.
It has been a tremendous privilege to represent our communities to the Federal Government, and working together, we have achieved many advocacy highlights and positive funding outcomes to improve the liveability and sustainability of our communities.
Importantly, since 2020 we have secured an estimated $7.22 billion in additional federal funding our councils can access, including the ongoing indexation to FA Grants, $500 million to support housing growth, a doubling of Roads to Recovery funding, $200 million per year for disaster mitigation and $100 million for climate action and emissions reduction.
It was a significant win that the Government continued to increase Financial Assistance Grants in line with the legislated indexation formula. The cumulative impact of this increase across four years was an additional $1.72 billion in untied federal funding to councils compared to if the FA Grants indexation had been frozen.
Also, in addition to participating in National Cabinet and the Council on Federal Financial Relations, it has been an honour to represent local government on a wide range of Ministerial Councils and Forums. Over the last four years ALGA has attended:
- Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council
- Building Ministers Meeting
- Road Safety Ministers Meeting
- Water Ministers Meeting
- Infrastructure and Transport Ministers Meeting
- Local Government Ministers Forum
- National Emergency Management Ministers Meeting
- Joint Council on Closing the Gap
- Planning Ministers Meeting
- Environment Ministers Meeting
- Cultural Ministers Meeting
- Food Ministers Meeting
- Ending Plastic Wate External Advisory Group Meeting
- Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy Oceania Steering Committee
- Ministerial Migration Roundtable
- Drought Ministers Roundtable
- Commemorative Grants Advisory Committee
- Regional Banking Taskforce
- Indigenous Affairs Ministers Meeting.
But there’s still so much to do, and I know you will continue to support ALGA, as well as your state and territory associations, as they continue to advocate for more sustainable funding for our communities.
Finally, as I close this amazing and memorable chapter of my career, I sincerely thank all of you for your outstanding support.
It’s rare you get to leave on top in politics, and I especially thank ALGA’s Board and state and territory association members for your unwavering commitment and dedication to making our cities, towns and regions better and more vibrant places to live, work and visit.
Disaster Ready Fund
Our advocacy in the lead up to the previous Federal election delivered a new $200 million per year Disaster Ready Fund, and it was fantastic to see 121 local government-based projects supported through the second round of this funding announced recently. The full list of successful projects is available here.
This funding will support projects worth more than $310 million, which collectively will significantly improve our nation’s disaster preparedness.
As the human and financial costs of disaster recovery continue to grow, it’s vital we prioritise local mitigation projects that will better safeguard our communities.
Annual conferences
Finally, I was delighted to speak one last time at the Local Government Association of Tasmania’s annual conference in Hobart last week, and I sincerely thank LGAT President Mayor Mick Tucker for the invitation.
I’m also looking forward to presenting to Victorian councils at the MAV annual conference in Melbourne on Thursday and thank President Councillor David Clark for hosting me.